Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

First, I want to cover the great news today from the Minister, Deputy Ryan's Department, and the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton's, office regarding support for regional airports. There will be €6.3 million allocated to Shannon Airport at a time there has been zero flights, which, in itself, causes considerable hassle for regional tourism in the area because it is one of the main ways people come in to visit the west coast. It is great news today. It is positive, not only for the airport but for the entire region because so much depends on that. I also welcome the fact that they will be able to use it for flexibility to roll out incentives, charge rebates and in consultation with airlines with a view to support recovery and growth of connectivity. That is important because we have to get back to where we were at least. We also have to look at the balance between Dublin flights and flights to other regional airports, including Shannon. At present, more than 90% of flights that are coming into Dublin come in and just leave the country. There is such good value to be given to flights coming in to other regional airports. It is also less of a carbon footprint, for example, to land in Shannon Airport. I welcome that great news today of €6.3 million for Shannon Airport, and other regional airports also benefiting.

The second issue I wanted to raise only came to my attention on Friday. I was talking to an academic about an academic matter in Galway and she ended up almost breaking down in the middle of the conversation over nothing to do with what we were talking about. She is a new mother. She has been breastfeeding her child for the past six months and she has struggled repeatedly with that. On her most recent visit to her GP, her own doctor was not there and a second doctor came in. He told her she was mad, that she should have given that up ages ago and at four months you should give up and get the solids going. I got so mad. My son is 22 since Saturday. We fought for and supported breastfeeding rights back in the day, with La Leche League and other groups. Twenty-one years ago I was at this craic and to think that a doctor in this day and age can say that to a woman makes me so mad. Not only is breastfeeding best, it can be challenging, which is why one should never discourage a woman from doing it.They need all of the encouragement in the world. Often women give up because they think they are failing. They are not failing but it is difficult, sometimes, to establish; it took me six weeks. There is a myth that it is best and therefore is easy but that is not the case. We need to get the message out that while breastfeeding is best, it can be challenging at the beginning but if one perseveres, one will succeed. The fact that a GP in this day and age would be in any way discouraging a woman from breastfeeding, as long as she wants to, is just appalling. We must nip that in the bud. It is 2021, for God's sake. The main reason the female body of any animal has breasts is to feed its young. I cannot believe that in this day and age we still have qualified people giving such ridiculously bad misinformation. It is important to note that breastfeeding is much cheaper than bottle feeding. It saves money and makes women feel good about themselves because they are doing the right thing for their child. It is also much healthier and much more hygienic. In 2021 we need to put a stop to any myths around breastfeeding and say that not only is it the best thing, it is better for the mother and the child. Everybody should be encouraging mothers to breastfeed. We need to stop throwing money at multinationals and their brands like SMA and Cow & Gate for the gack they are making and pushing on people all over the world. We have to stop that and represent the rest of the world. We are a developed country and we know what is best.